⋆° დ ༄ RISKY BUSINESS
chapter one. stepping stone.
"Adam, you're gonna be fine, alright?" Maxine says, as she puts her hand on the palm scanner to get onto the intelligence unit, "the academy is no joke"
"Yeah, I know. You and dad have both told me numerous times"
"Okay, so then you know you have to take it seriously, it's only been a few months. Just be yourself . . . well, on second thought, maybe tone it down a bit" she jokes.
"HA HA"
"I gotta go. I'll see you tonight?"
"Yeah"
"Okay, love you. Bye"
"Love you too"
Maxine hangs up her phone and slides it into her back pocket, then takes off her coat and hangs it on the back of her chair and walks into the break room to grab a cup of coffee.
"that stuff'll kill you now, apparently"
Maxine looks over at her ex boyfriend ( who Antonio had brought onto the unit, because god was out to get her, she'd always say ) and raises an eyebrow, "yeah, I bet"
"I read an article online" Mickey says, grabbing a cup from the cabinet.
"Well, that is last on the very long list of things that I'm concerned about" Maxine says, grabbing the sugar. Mickey holds out his mug towards his ex girlfriend, who looks at him, with a rather shocked look and says, "Please"
Maxine rolls her eyes, going to pour the coffee into his mug and says, "you're annoying"
Mickey smirks and says, "you love it"
"Shut up"
Sheldon Jin then walks into the break room and asks, "Hey, have you guys seen Voight around?"
"No, why?" Maxine asks.
"Nothing" Jin says, before walking away. Mickey looks over at the brunette girl and asks, "so, dinner tonight?"
Maxine scoffs and says, "you wish" before walking away to her desk. Mickey nods his head and says, "yes, you're right"
~~~
As the team starts doing some paperwork, Voight walks onto the unit with patrol officers, Kim Burgess and Kevin Atwater behind him and says, "Alright, listen up. I got a name on those dope deaths. It's a dealer named Rev on South Emerald. Soon as Olinsky gets here we're gonna set..."
"I'm over here" Alivin Olinsky interrupts, leaning back in his chair, eating a banana, so Voight can see him, "Hey"
"Hey, Alvin"
"Hank"
"We're gonna set up a controlled buy. Halstead and Bishop in the doorway. Do not go inside"
The two detectives nod their heads and Maxine says, "Got it"
"Alright, one more thing" Hank says, walking towards his office and turns around, "We've been doing this for, what, two months? Now more than ever, we keep everything in house. Understand? I don't care how they run other departments, or how you came up. This is Intelligence. My unit. You tell me the truth so I can lie for you. And if you ever go over my head, it'll be the last head you go over. Everybody goes home tonight"
🪩🪩🪩
Jay and Maxine go undercover as two users when said male slams his fist against the white door with Maxine hangs onto his arm and he yells, "Rev, open up!"
"Hey! Do you mind keeping it down?" a man asks, sticking his head out the door.
"Am I banging on your door? No? Then go back inside" Jay says, and the man rolls his eyes and shuts the door and the detective begins slamming his fist against the door again, "Rev, open up!"
"I'm going out on a limb here. Rev might not be home" Antonio Dawson says, through the walkie.
The door opens to reveal a man with shaggy brown hair who says, "What?"
"Yeah, uh, is...is Rev here?" Jay asks.
"No, so quit pounding on the door" the man says. Jay stops the door from closing and says, "Hey, man. Yo, my girl, she's going into rehab tomorrow. Wants to go out with a bang tonight. Rev usually hooks me up" then he pulls out a folded up hundred trying to hand it to the man who just looks between them, "You ever been to rehab, man? It sucks"
Maxine looks down to see blood on the man's pant leg, with no sign of him begin hurt and pulls her partner back as he was about to walk inside and says, "We'll come back when Rev's here"
"You've been up my ass for two hours about scoring some H"
Maxine narrows her eyes at the man and says, "Well, I changed my mind"
Jay looks at the man and says, "Mujeres, right?"
~~~
"It looked like blood. That and the fact that we don't know that guy" Maxine says, as the team huddles in an alley.
"You don't have to justify yourself. If you got a bad hit, you got a bad hit" Hank says, "Let's go in"
"No, cause maybe it looked like blood? That's not probable cause to force an entry" Julie Willhite says.
"He could've been marinating chicken and spilled barbecue sauce on his pants" Dawson says.
"We've got three OD's traced back to the heroin Rev's moving. You want to wait for another kid to die?" Voight questions.
"We'll do a knock and talk. Alright? Whoever's in control of the apartment gets all squirrely, we'll take it from there" Al says.
As the team heads back to their cars, Mickey catches up to Maxine and says, "Max, hey. I was serious earlier. You wanna grab dinner later?"
"And I was serious too. You wish"
"Max, come on"
Maxine stops walking and faces her ex, "Mick, I'm not doing this here. We're at work. Personal stays outside the door" then she walks away. Jay and Erin look at each other confused then shots were fired at them and hitting the cars around them, so they duck behind them and grab their guns from their holsters.
"10-1! Shots fired at the police. 10-1! 5600 Emerald. Plain clothes officers at the scene" Antonio dispatches over the radio.
"Get the long guns!" Voight yells.
As they get the long guns and Olinsky gets the ram, they slowly head up to the apartment that Jay and Maxine were at not even 20 minutes earlier, when Al slams the door in and Dawson walks in first and yells, "Police"
When they clear the place out, Erin shouts, "Body!" and they head into the living room.
"That's Rev in the john" Mickey says, leaving the bathroom.
"Offender must've booked" Dawson says. Hank takes out his walkie to talk to Burgess and Atwater and says, "Call it in. Clear the rest of the building. Shooter's in the wind"
Then the team hears something coming from the closet. Jules rushes to the door and looks at her team before opening, who all have their guns pointing straight ahead, then the blonde opens the door to find a young boy sitting on the ground with his hands up.
🪩🪩🪩
Maxine and Jay get out of their car, getting their long guns from the trunk and walk to the roll up to where Hank is standing who says, "Bishop, put together a description of the guy who answered the door. See if you can find him in any of our databases"
Maxine nods as they head to the back to put their guns away, when Jin passes them and asks Jay, "Hey, is your transmitter alright? I heard it cut out"
Jay takes out his transmitter to hand to Jin and says, "Yeah, uh...banged up against the wall. Sorry Jin" Jay says, walking to the back to put his long gun away as well, leaving Sheldon with a shocked expression.
Hank leans up against the caged wall and says, "Alvin, I'm gonna need a fresh face in case we have someone pose as a buyer again"
"Yeah. I'll pull someone from the academy" Al says. Jay walks over to his partner and says, "I owe you one"
"That's why you have back up" Maxine smiles, punching his shoulder lightly, before walking away.
~~~
Maxine catches up with Olinsky in the stairwell going up to the unit and says, "Hey Al"
"What's up, kid?"
"I heard you were going to the academy to pull someone"
"Yeah"
"I know someone who's in the academy right now. You don't have to bring him up but just consider it"
"Whats the name?"
"Adam Ruzek"
"Yeah, maybe" Al says before continuing up the stairs.
~~~
"That's him" Maxine says, looking at the picture of the guy she and Jay talked to, then shows her partner.
"Andrew Dias, aka Pulpo, the octopus" Antonio says, writing the name onto the whiteboard above the man's mugshot, "He's got dual citizenship here from Colombia. Me and Jules had him on our radar five years back, when he was working his way up from street enforcer"
"Yeah, I remember his name. Didn't he beat a double murder rap?" Voight asks, leaning on the filing cabinet.
"The two key witnesses were killed" Jules says.
"Was he cutting off heads back then, too?" Erin questions.
"No, he learned a thing or two since he was in Colombia"
"What type of player was he? What part of the city did he hold down?" Jay asks.
"Oh, see, that's the thing, he wasn't affiliated with any faction. Nobody knew his real script. He was just in it for the money and the blood" Antonio says.
"Okay, you two in my office" Hank says, pointing to Jay and Antonio. The two detectives walk into Voights office who asks, "have you ever heard the expression '10% of the cops do 90% of the work'?"
"I have" Jay says.
"Well, this intelligence unit is part of the 10%" Voight says, putting on his jacket, then walks over to Halstead, "with that said, I appreciate your aggressiveness, but you were instructed to do an undercover buy in the doorway. I never told you to cross the threshold. If you had, you and Bishop might not have gotten out of there alive." Voight then looks at Antonio, "you vouched for him. Keep him in line" then he leaves his office.
🪩🪩🪩
The team walks up to the front door of an Eric Cooper, where Antonio slams his fist on the door and says, "Eric Cooper open up! Hey, Coop, open up!"
"Pry marks" Mickey says, then looks back at Voight who says. "Breach"
Jay uses the shotgun to open the door and Antonio kicks it in and yells, "Police!...Clear!"
Once the team clears out the house, they see a severed head on the counter and Voight says, "The next head I see better be Pulpo's"
🪩🪩🪩
"Just wait here" Al tells the cadet and looks at Voight who is standing at the whiteboard and says, "Hey, come here" and Hank walks over to the two, "Adam Ruzek this is Sergeant Voight"
"Hey, boss. Nice to meet you" Ruzek says, shaking Voights hand.
"You too" Hank says, then turns to Al and says, "Ruzek, huh? I know that name"
"Yeah, my dad Bob was a patrolman his whole career in the 26th"
"You don't say"
"I pulled him out of the academy. Not his old man" Al states, "with a little help from Bishop, of course"
"What, did you work with my dad?" Adam asks.
"Yeah, we were on the same, uh, softball team together" Al mumbles. Hank looks at Al and smirks, knowing that's not the truth and says, "Softball league"
"He designed t shirts, if I'm not mistaken. Yep"
"Boy, there's some good living up in Beverly. That's where you were raised, right?"
"I split time with my dad there and my mom up in Canaryville. Actually, Maxine and I both did" Adam says, as Al gives a shocked expression towards Hank, who nods.
"If D'Anthony was right and he heard three voices in the apartment, Pulpo must've brought two hit men with him from Medellin" Antonio says, writing on the whiteboard.
"Alright, just get all this information to Lieutenant Belden in Violent Crimes. Hey, have we gotten anything from his end?" Hank questions.
"Nothing"
Maxine gets up from her desk, after getting off the phone and says, "Calls between Rev and Coop yesterday, only one other number called them both. It's a pay as you go drop phone. Signal's off, but it was purchased at a cell phone store in Greektown"
"Take Halstead with you, check it out" Hank says.
Maxine nods her head and the two detectives grab their coats. Maxine then walks over to her best friend and gives him two fist bumps, "the academy isn't looking too bad now, is it?" Then she leaves the unit with her partner.
"I want the Canaryville out of you. Not the Beverly" Hank says to Ruzek.
"Yeah. Got it boss" Adam says then goes around, introducing himself to the team, when he lands on someone he hoped to never see again.
"Hey, Adam" Mickey says, going in for a handshake. Adam looks down at his hand and says, "Yeah" before going to introduce himself to everyone else.
🪩🪩🪩
Maxine drives down the road, Jay riding shotgun. If there was one thing Jay knew for sure about Maxine, is that he will never be behind the wheel as long as their partners.
"We've worked together what , a month?" Jay asks and Maxine nods her head, "I think it's time we can be honest with each other. Wouldn't you agree?"
"No"
"two things. One, you driving all the time? I'm not down with that"
"Seniority rules" Maxine smirks, glancing at her partner before looking back at the road.
"I've been on the job longer"
"I've been in this unit longer" Maxine shrugs.
"Okay, look, I feel like a house husband"
Maxine smacks her lips together and gives her partner the puppy dog look and says, "Aww. What was the second thing?"
Jay clears his throat and says, "what's the deal with you and Mickey? I thought things ended between you two a while ago"
Maxine pulls over and parks the car, taking her seat belt off and sighs, saying, "this stays between us"
"Of course"
"We've been married for five years and we got two kids" Maxine jokes and the two detectives get out of the car.
"I want to say you're being sarcastic because I've come to terms with that's who you are but I need to know" Jay says, as Maxine joins him on the sidewalk to get to the corner store. Maxine looks back at her partner and says, "need?" as they walk towards the store, passing by some creeps working on a car.
"Long story. Unless you need to know about that too"
"Ah, shake it, baby" the man says, interrupting their conversation. Maxine shakes her head and walks into the store as Jay says, "Watch yourself" following his partner.
"Yes, sir, officer, sir" the guy says, saluting the detective.
The two detectives walk over to the counter to talk with the person working it and Jay says, "A pay as you go phone was purchased from your store in the last 24 hours. We're looking for who bought it"
Maxine hands him a slip and the worker checks out the date through his receipts and says, "Yeah, a Jaun Garcia. Yesterday. Paid cash"
"Any other information you can provide us?" Bishop asks.
"No, we're not responsible for background checks"
Maxine smirks, sarcastically and says, "True, but it is a fairly common name. You know, there's not a lot we can do with that"
"Yeah" Halstead agrees.
"You don't tell me how to do my job and I don't tell you how to do yours" The man says, handing Bishop the slip back, who scoffs.
"You're Glen Pearson, right? The owner of this place?" Jay asks.
"That's right"
The detective takes out a piece of paper from his back pocket, unfolding it and says, "You know, it looks like there's a Glen Pearson with a deceptive practice and fraud charges for selling stolen merchandise out of Gary, Indiana"
"Oh?" Maxine says, looking at her partner in fake shock.
"That's a 25,000 dollar extraditable must hold warrant"
"Oy"
"What do you think? Height, weight match. Eye color too" Jay says, showing the paper to his partner. Maxine looks at the paper then back at the man and says, "Yeah. But I don't know. I hate to jump to conclusions. You know what? I got an idea. Why don't we throw some bracelets on him, we'll take him down to the station, run his prints, and then we can be sure"
"I got a nanny cam up here. I can pull some footage. Get a picture of the guy who did it. It's the best I can do"
"Oh. That's great"
"You're too kind" Jay says.
Once the two partners leave the store, after getting the image from the nanny cam, Jay says, "Knew that would work"
"Mmm" Maxine hums, "Just gotta figure out who this idiot is"
The two turn around to hear a beer bottle breaking right between them and the same man from before saying, "Why don't you bring that ass over to my place sometime, girl. I'll let you in"
Maxine scoffs, then Jay hands her his gun and says, "Let it go"
"Uh-huh"
"Jay, I got this" Maxine says, handing back his gun and shield and she gives him hers, then she walks over to the lot and says, "Hey. Come here a sec"
"Nah, you're just trying to get me with assaulting a police officer" the man says, walking closer to the detective. Maxine tilts her head to the side and asks, "Do you see a badge on me?" Then she smile, "Come on, I promise I can take it"
The man goes to hit Maxine, who grabs him by the neck and kicks him in the face with her knee. The man falls to the ground holding his bleeding nose and Maxine asks, "Anyone else?" And when no one answers she helps the man up, who looks at her stunned then walks back over to her partner and smiles.
"Wow" Jay says shocked, giving his partner back her gun and badge, "i think I'm in love with you"
"Uh huh. You're still not driving" Maxine raises an eyebrow then heads back to the car.
🪩🪩🪩
"Colombian authorities ID'd this guy as Omar Rojas, freelance hitman" Jay says, as Antonio writes underneath the mans picture.
"So Rev was the boss, Coop moved the merchandise, who's the next in the chain of command?" Voight asks.
"Well, that was the problem. Rev was only in town from Baton Rouge for a year. There was no structure to his crew" Jules says.
"And nobody's talking?"
"Nope"
"Alright, when Olinsky gets in you tell him..."
"I'm right here" Al interrupts, leaning back in his chair. Hank looks at the man and says, "Anything from your CI's?"
"No dice. Something about not wanting to have their heads chopped off"
Hank sighs and says, "Alright. Get Rojas' image out there with Pulpo's city wide, all airports, train, bus stations, and keep hitting the bushes"
Maxine nods at Hank that there's someone behind him and as the Sergeant turns around he sees Lieutenant Beldon walking onto the unit, who nods his head towards his office.
Maxine goes to sit at her desk when Jay follows her and says, "Hey, you wanna meet up at Molly's tonight? Atwater is doing some sort of thing there, I don't know"
"Mmm, sounds tempting. But I can't . . . sorry"
"Big date or something?"
Maxine raises an eyebrow and says, "Nope, just don't really feel like going out is all"
🪩🪩🪩
"Adam, let's go! The movies about to start" Maxine yells from the living room.
"Alright, alright. I'm coming" Adam says, walking into the living room with a bowl of popcorn and two beers. Maxine grabs the bowl of popcorn, as Adam sits next to her on the couch and says, "what movie did you pick?"
"My favorite classic scary movie"
Adam rolls his eyes and says, "poltergeist"
"Yeah . . . it's scary how well you know me"
"Trust me, I know"
Maxine sets the bowl of popcorn on her lap, and leans her head on her best friend's shoulder, who wraps his arm around her shoulders and takes a sip of his beer. "Where's Wendy?" She asks.
"Out with friends"
"And you came over to watch a movie with little ol' me? I'm honored"
"As you should be" he jokes, making them both laugh.
🪩🪩🪩
"This is your first undercover bust. You got this" Maxine tells Adam, after Al had prepped him in the roll up.
"I got this"
"And what's the code word?"
"Cheeto"
"Cheeto" she says, going in for a fist bump, "that's your lifeline, Adam"
"I got it, Maxie. I'm good" he smiles.
"Uh huh"
~~~
After Ruzek goes undercover to do the drug bust, Antonio and Jules question the drug dealer, Xavier, and about 20 minutes later they walk onto the unit and Dawson says, "We're looking for a Shane Cameron. Xavier says he's been in hiding since yesterday"
"Yeah, but he has a flop house over on Addison. Might be worth checking out" Jules says.
"Alright, everybody vest up" Hank orders.
~~~
Jules, Erin and Maxine are in the locker room, putting on their vests when Jules says, "What's up Voight's ass today?"
"Who knows" Erin says.
"You would" Jules says, walking over to Erin, as Maxine fixed the straps on her boots, "you have his card in your locker. How old is that thing anyway?"
"Thirteen years"
"Wanna tell me about it" The blonde asks, leaning against the surrounding lockers.
"The man saved my life. Here I am" Erin says then Jules gives her a look, "Oh, you want to know more about that? It's gonna cost you a couple drinks" then she closes her locker.
Jules smirks then looks at Maxine, "what about you?"
Max looks up at the blonde, "What about me?"
"You seem tight with Voight. You guys always have these closed door meetings in his office"
"We worked together in the gang unit is all"
"Hey, a night away from the kids and a couple of juicy stories? Happy to buy some drinks" Jules smiles, walking away. Maxine and Erin smile at each other following after the blonde.
🪩🪩🪩
The team, minus Antonio and Jules, wait outside at their cars when two more vehicles show up and Lieutenant Belden and a couple of his officers get out and over to the intelligence team.
"It's okay, Lieutenant. We got it covered. I'll let you know if he's upstairs" Hank says.
"Who?" Belden asks.
"Shane Cameron. I left you a message"
"We're following up on the car"
"What car?"
"Plate matched to a black four door seen leaving the scene of the Coop murder yesterday. Supposed to be parked around here"
Hank narrows his eyes at the man and says, "I never got that info"
"Yeah, must've dropped the ball on that"
Voight gets on his walkie and says, "Terminate. Pull back. Targets may be in the building"
Then a couple seconds later, Antonio gets on the radio and says, "10-1. Officer shot!"
Hank and Maxine run up the stairs with their guns drawn.
"Jules" Maxine yells, as Hank goes into the apartment to clear it.
Once the ambo arrives, Dawson and Voight pick Jules up, who was shot in the neck, and brings her outside fast without doing more damage and Maxine right behind them and says, "You're gonna be okay, Jules"
"We gotta move. Get her in the ambo" Gabby Dawson says, as her partner Leslie Shay opens up the back doors.
"She's gonna be okay, right?" Maxine asks.
"We gotta move" Gabby states, as Hank and Antonio help her up onto the stretcher, "Mid clavicular"
"I'm coming with you, sister" Maxine says, getting into the back of the ambo with Jules and holding onto her hand.
"Start an IV" Gabby tells Shay.
"You're gonna be okay" Maxine sniffles, "It's gonna be okay, you're gonna be okay"
🪩🪩🪩
Maxine and Erin wait in the waiting room for a doctor to come out with hopefully good news. Erin takes ahold of her friends hand and says, "She'll make it, she has too. She's tough"
"Yeah" Maxine says, then stands up, as the doctor walks over to them, "How is she?"
"I'm sorry" the doctor says, "we did everything we could"
Maxine looks at Erin, shocked and in tears. Erin pulls her into a hug, both crying from losing a close friend.
A few minutes later, Erin calls up Voight who says, "Yeah?"
"Hank, Jules didn't make it"
authors note;
AHHHH! I love Maxine 🥰
I hope you guys do too and I can't wait to continue writing it :)